Google hit with fresh French antitrust claims

A search company has made fresh antitrust complaints against Google to the European Commission, alleging that Google blocked some of its rivals from using its Adsense advertising platform.On Tuesday, 1plusV — the publisher of legal search engine eJustice.

A search company has made fresh antitrust complaints against Google to the European Commission, alleging that Google blocked some of its rivals from using its Adsense advertising platform.

On Tuesday, 1plusV — the publisher of legal search engine eJustice.fr, which has a longstanding complaint against Google — said Adsense was "the only truly effective way of obtaining targeted advertising on a search engine", and Google's refusal to allow vertical search engines such as eJustice.fr access to Adsense was designed to stifle competition.

Marie-Cecile Rameau, a lawyer at the firm representing 1plusV, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying "vertical search engines are specifically dangerous competitors because they give more added value; they are kind of a last bastion competition to Google".

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